I don’t want to give the surprise away, but you should go to Toogle and search for an image as if you were at Google’s image page… (Thanks to Vergil Iliescu for the link.)

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Video of the then Lt Gov of Texas saying that he pulled strings to get W into the National Guard…

A little context here.

I know y’all have probably seen this already, but I just got a link to this photo from the Yale yearbook showing W sucker-punching some unlucky rugby opponent, violating lots of rules, both official and of decency. [Thanks to Mark Dionne for the link.]

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A man who had his jaw removed because of mouth cancer has had a new jaw implanted. He grew it on his back by using stem cells, growth hormones and wire mesh.

How long before we start getting spam offering this as a sure-fire way to please our lady, if you know what I mean?

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Two stories on page 3 of the NY Times today are headlined with a question: “Did Kissinger Tolerate Rights Abuses in Argentina?” and “Is North Korean Leader’s Mistress Dead?” Neither is marked as news analysis.

Are questions the beginning of humility?

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John Battelle has an idea for “sell side advertising,” which is very interesting even though I never get “sell side” and “buy side” right. (Thanks to Ross Mayfield for the link.)

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Bruce Schneier has had four security-related op-eds published. Yikes! Here they are:

In the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, I write about the stupidity of our terrorist threat warnings. This is my favorite of the four, even though they didn’t use my suggested title: “A Clear and Non-Specific Danger.” http://www.schneier.com/essay-055.html

In Newsday, I write about the government’s “no fly” list. The lead: “Imagine a list of suspected terrorists so dangerous that we can’t ever let them fly, yet so innocent that we can’t arrest them.” http://www.schneier.com/essay-052.html

In the Boston Globe, I write about the government’s airline “trusted traveller” program, and how it hurts rather than helps security: http://www.schneier.com/essay-051.html

And in the Sydney Morning Herald, I write about the $1.5 billion spent on Olympic security: http://www.schneier.com/essay-053.html

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W is now denouncing 527 groups (some background here, here, here, and here) so that he’ll get headlines that sound as if he’s denounced the Swiftboat Veterans for Big Lies. And, of course, it’s working.

But I find myself really confused about what to do about those 527s. On the one hand, they are the way big money is getting around campaign finance limitations. They give too much power to people and companies with money. On the other, how do you stop them from advertising (a proposal the Reform Party backs) without infringing on free speech? If I want to raise a million dollars to buy a SuperBowl ad denouncing poodle trimmers, I should be allowed to.

Should there be a limit on how much anyone can contribute to a 527? Should there be a limit on how much you can contribute to a 527 for use in media campaigns? Should there be controls on the content of ads? The Federal Election Commission is going to decide – in effect after the election – whether 527s should be regulated the way the parties are, an idea that John McCain and Public Citizen like. I myself just don’t know. My liberal money-shouldn’t-buy-influence ideals conflict with my free speech ideals. Maybe there’s a simple and obvious right answer. I’m guessing some of you will tell me what it is.

BTW, I can’t find any position on the topic at www.JohnKerry.com. But it’s pretty clear that Bush’s new position against soft-money 527s is a serious flip-flop by W who opposed soft-money limits on individuals (see here.)

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Meta-Roj got comment-spammed by the Swiftboat Veterans for Big Lies and is pissed. He retaliates by posting bunches of links, info about their domain, and a link to their Form 8872 finance report that lists the group’s email address as “no@email.”

(Note: Meta-Roj lists my blog, Loose Democracy, as one that escaped the blog spam. No such luck. And, I could have done without M-R’s Vietnamese comments, apparently based on the fact that the IP address for the boasting is the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre .)

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Tom‘s such a damn fine, and funny, writer. It’s enjoyable watching him ride his rant about FEMA like a buckin’ bronco, even while knowing how Charley has disrupted his life.

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MediaPost‘s MediaDailyNews runs a story by Ross Fadner with this headline:

This is based on an article in Classified Intellligence Report about eBay buying 25% of Craigslist:

Like a certain hockey-masked stalker from Camp Crystal Lake, Craigslist threatens to slice into newspapers’ employment and real estate advertising strongholds. Add the huge promotional power of Meg Whitman and her team and this is one horror flick you don’t want to see.

The editor of the report, Peter Zollman, seems to me to get it right: “Craigslist is not the threat; it’s a symptom or a reaction to the threat.” The “disease” of which Craigslist is a symptom is the growth of the Internet and the decline in interest in print newspapers. “Newspapers have lost their role as the marketplace [for classifieds],” Zollman says in the MediaDailyNews article. “Craigslist is the new marketplace.”

Without irony, the little ad to the right of the MediaDailyNews headline reads:

Every day MediaPost Classifieds list dozens of prominent media planner, buyer, seller and marketing positions.

Fun facts from the article: CraigsList’s 45 regional sites get a billion page views monthly and 5 million unique visitors. Classifieds account for 40-45% of a newspaper’s advertising revenues, or $15.8 billion dollars per year in the US. Craigslist’s annual revenues are guessed to be $7-$12 million/year. Craigslist does not advertise, relying on word-of-mouth.

And the article says the following about eBay’s plans:

According to eBay spokesman Hani Durzy, the company bought the minority investment in Craigslist to learn more about online classifieds and how to reach local markets. We’re learning more about the classifieds market… what these are, what it is that makes them tick,” Durzy told theCIR.

Zollman believes that in the short-term, eBay’s involvement in Craigslist will be minimal. In the mid-term, he said he expects eBay to aid the classifieds provider in its expansion efforts, eliminating the scams that permeate the service, and implementing new technologies. Zollman doesn’t expect eBay to fund promotional efforts, at least in the near future.

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